Frameworks VIII

May 11–November 4, 2012

Framework VIII showcases this year’s results of the Museum’s frame conservation apprenticeship program. In this program, now in its eighth year, Smith College and other Five-College students are trained by Chief Preparator William Myers and Associate Director David Dempsey in the techniques of frame conservation. Featured in this installation are two historically accurate frames created for William Merritt Chase’s Woman in Black(ca. 1890) and Juan Gris’s Still Life: Bottle of Rum (ca. 1914). Also conserved in this year’s program were two frames, dating to 1890 and 1910, lent by the Holyoke Public Library and in need of treatment for minor losses of ornament, gesso, and gilding.

This project is an outgrowth of the Museum’s long-term effort to study and conserve the frames in its collection, supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and by the Friends of the Museum who contributed to a special Annual Appeal, “The Frame Project: Conservation and Restoration of Museum Masterpieces.” The Museum would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance: Michele Metta-Kahn (AC, class of 2007); Sophia Ong (class of 2012); Maria Pagan, Director of the Holyoke Public Library; Jack Meingast, of The Decorators Supply Company, Chicago; and William Adair, of Gold Leaf Studios, Washington, D.C. The following companies are thanked for their generous support: The Decorators Supply Company, Chicago; and the J. H. Miller Picture Frame Company, West Springfield.